Tuesday, March 22, 2011

4 Sundays all with 'T's!

Just remember what they say about pride and falls when reading the first 2 weekends!

Sunday 1 - Tunbridge Wells 1/2 marathon 27th Feb 2011 - Tears

My training had been going really well and the speedwork seemed to have made a difference. I felt strong and powerful and eager to tackle the Tunbridge Wells 1/2 marathon. I was so convinced that I was going to get a course pb (personal best time) that I had bought a bottle of champagne in anticipation.

I'm sure you can see where this is heading!

The day dawned and it was perfect weather; cool but bright with only a slight breeze. I started well and got to the halfway mark in 58 minutes so it looked good. Anyway, as ever, pride came before a fall and I just slowed right down in the 2nd half, finishing in 2:11:25 which is not only my worst time for the course but my worst ever 1/2 marathon time.

There was a very teary phone call to Mike at the finish. He very wisely suggested that we should have the champagne anyway to drown my sorrows - I love that man!!!

Sunday 2 - another 20 mile training run - Tears again!

It was all going so well. I'd got out bright and early on the Sunday to do my 20 miler. The weather was perfect, bright but cool and there were signs of Spring everywhere,

I'd plotted out a hilly route to build stamina but was feeling strong when I hit the 14 mile mark. I spotted some women and dogs up ahead. I was on a single track lane in the middle of nowhere and I guessed that the dogs would be off their leads so when I got close to them I started to walk (dogs often get over-excited around runners and it's always safest to walk or even stop in case they jump up at you).

There were 2 women and a little girl accompanied by 2, very excited, stocky labradors and a small yappy dog. They wrapped themselves around my legs and then pottered off. I exchanged pleasantries with the women and then started running again. I heard one of the women calling the dogs and the next thing I knew I was knocked off my feet by a 3rd black labrador who'd been down in a ditch and came hurtling up the bank and just took my legs from under me.

I landed flat on my face with my cheek and nose touching the tarmac. Thankfully my right side had taken most of the impact so my face wasn't hurt but my hip, thigh, knee and elbow were very sore. My water bottle was flung away and my hat flew off too. As I picked myself up I heard one of the women saying "oh dear, he's jumped up and knocked that lady over". She asked if I was OK but didn't bother to apologise!

As I picked myself up and gathered my things together I felt a bit shaken so I phoned Mike to tell him what had happened. Of course, there were more tears and I really didn't feel like carrying on, partly because I felt too teary but mainly because my leg was very sore. Thankfully I was only 3.5 miles from home but by the time I got there I'd developed a massive lump on the side of my knee. So my 20 miles ended up being 17.5 miles instead. Grrrrrrr!

Sunday 3 - a Triumphant 20 miles

Thank goodness my next attempt at a 20 miler passed without incident and I regained my confidence. Phew!

Sunday 4 - another Triumph (for a running chum)

Last weekend was the Hastings 1/2 marathon which is a brilliant event. It's a tough route with the first 1/2 all going uphill so it's not for the faint-hearted.

So when a fellow forumite from Runners World started training to run this as her first ever 1/2 marathon at the age of 67 I offered to run with her to help her achieve her goal. I jiggled my marathon schedule around so that I only needed to do about 17 miles that Sunday. I did 2.5 miles beforehand and then 2.5 miles afterwards making my total mileage 18 which was perfect.

My new running shoes had arrived the day before and look, they are purple and silver! I love purple. As I wasn't trying for a good time at Hastings I decided to dress up a bit, hence the stripey tights. I had intended to wear a tutu, in purple of course, but when I put it on I looked like and elephant with a ruff around it's waist so that idea was abandoned quickly!

Iona had been training well but was somewhat apprehensive and she really didn't think she'd be able to run all the way or that she'd get round in anything less than 3 hours. But she'd never had anyone to run with before and that makes a huge difference. I felt honoured to be part of her adventure and it was quite a responsibilty to get the pacing right.

I set the pace at around 12 - 12.5 minute miling and told her to let me know if it was too fast but she coped very well with the challenging hills and we reached the halfway point in 1:20 which was excellent and gave her confidence a real boost. Towards the 10 mile mark I noticed that she was slowing down a bit and I didn't try to push her on as I could see she was tiring. It was more important that she finished having run all the way than end up having to walk because she was too tired.

The crowd was amazing as always and they really lifted our spirits. I was very impressed that many people hung around to cheer on the slower runners and walkers. We spent most of the race either just in front of or just behind a group of firefighters pushing a hospital bed along so there was a fun atmosphere.

We crossed the line in 2:52:11 which was absolutely brilliant and she was very pleased and proud. I couldn't hang around too long as I still had to run another 2.5 miles. There were looks of surprise from people who had seen me finish alongside runners and walkers who were limping and looking dead on their feet and then I went bounding off looking quite fresh!

2 comments:

Just commenting to tell you how much I admire your careful training, timing, etc with your marathons and half marathons. You just keep on going, running 50 miles a week (!!!), tapering down in prep for a race, and I think it's marvellous. Well done, you!

About Me

I enjoy many crafts including knitting and crochet but I also love running which I use to raise money for Alzheimer's Research UK in memory of my mum (please read her story below to see why it is so important to me). So far I've raised over £50,000 towards research into this devastating disease.
I ran my first marathon in 2004 at the age of 48. In 2007 I celebrated my 50th birthday by running a series of 5 marathons and 2 ultras. I wanted to do something special at the London marathon to get publicity for ARUK - a friend remarked that I should "act my age and stay at home with my knitting!" So I took my knitting with me to became the first person to knit whilst running a marathon and set the Guinness World Record for "The longest Scarf Knitted Whilst Running a Marathon"! I was also the first person to crochet whilst running a marathon. I have now run 120 marathons (4 whilst knitting, 2 whilst crocheting to set the GWR for "Longest crochet chain whilst running a marathon"). I achieved my 100th marathon 7 months before my 60th birthday in 2017 and also completed 52 marathons in 52 weeks in the process.

Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.